Anybody tried this? I'd like to run the network render service off our local file server that runs Microsoft Server 2003 across our Gigabit network. Will it work?

I've done Vegas 7 on Server 2003. It's a bit of a headache to get DirectX and everything else set up, but it can install and run.

Performance is Vista-ish, but it *does* run. Try setting it up in Virtual PC 2007 (free) to get a sense of whether or not what you want to do will work properly before you wipe a machine.